After the Fukushima disaster in 2011, Germany decided to shut down all of its nuclear power plants by 2020. Eight out of sixteen nuclear power reactors have been shut down and eight reactors are still operating. There is a growing concern that the four utility companies that own all the reactors, shuttered and operating, may not have enough money to pay for decommissioning their reactors and disposing of the nuclear waste.
The German government has conducted an audit of nuclear plant decommissioning funds that is referred to as a stress test. The estimated cost of decommissioning all the reactors ranges from twenty eight billion dollars to about eighty eight billion dollars. The four companies that own the reactors have set aside about forty five billion dollars. In the worst case scenario, this would leave the decommissioning funds about forty billion dollars short. The auditors have pointed out that the combined assets of the four companies is about ninety four billion dollars so in the worst case, the companies could be liquidated to pay the additional cost.
After the reactors are shut down, if the funds for decommissioning are not readily available, they may just be mothballed behinds fences. Even if the funds are available, it will take decades for the buildings and equipment to cool off, be cut up and carted away for disposal. The spent nuclear fuel could wind up being stored on the grounds of the shutter reactors for decades. There are plans for the creation of a permanent geological repository but it is unlikely that it will be operational before 2050 at the earliest. The decaying reactor and the stored waste represent environmental hazards and a tempting target for terrorists.
One of the utility companies has said that it may have to lay off staff if there are uncertainties over nuclear liability. However, this might lead to a downgrade in credit ratings and financial difficulties for the firm. When it was announced that there might not be enough money in the decommissioning funds, the value of the stock for two of the utilities dropped thirteen percent in two hours. As time goes by, problems and negative announcements will impact the financial stability of all four of the utilities. If one or more of the companies go bankrupt, their value may drop to the point where even liquidation will not pay for their share of decommissioning. In that case, the German taxpayers would have to pick up the rest of the bill. One of the reasons for the stress tests was to determine how likely the need for a taxpayer bailout might be.
The four companies are involved in individual lawsuits against the German government that total about twenty seven billion dollars. The claims represented by these lawsuits may be used to trade for decommissioning expenses when it comes time to decide who is going to pay for what in the decommissioning and waste disposal.
Critics of nuclear power in Germany are afraid that even with the optimistic estimations of available decommissioning funds, German taxpayers will still wind up paying for some of the work and waste disposal.
